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15 foot lead on a 211?

For what its worth,at the later part of the last century I use to run a little 90 amp Miller SideKick off my Miller Big 40. I had a Tweco 400 20' gun plugged into that SideKick and ran .030 through it,but it did struggle at times to push that thinner wire if the cable/hose was halfway straight.Worked great for combine repair.Funny I just scrapped that Sidekick last year,tough little welder.

I have asked this be for and I am told that the drive motors in the 211 will not hold up to a 15' gun. I have not seen a post here or on other forums from some who has a 15' gun an a 211. I now have a MM252 and use the 211 for small bench work, but it still would be nice to have a 15' gun on my 211.

I genuinely don't know what I'm talking about, so this is a real question:

Can the SpoolMate be used with steel wire & a normal copper tip? I understand that the spoolgun is required because the drive in the machine won't push weak thin Aluminum thru the lead tube. And I understand that a normal MIG gun is smaller, lighter, & more ergonomic than a spoolgun when the wire is stiff enough to use a remote drive. But is there any reason a spoolgun CAN'T be used with steel wire? Is the programming in the machine for the weld parameters different for the spoolgun to cater to Aluminum, making it unsuitable for steel? Of course, I'm talking about leaving the 75/25 gas hooked up...

Yes the spool gun will take steel wire with the same tip. I have run dozens of rolls thru mine. I found to have a spare set of drive rollers for steel because the groove will wear and then it won't feed aluminum....Bob

I run a 15 ft benard gun on my MM211 since i bought it in 2009 no problems. I had a MM challenger i bought in 1997 and ran 15 ft guns on it, also its owned by a custormer of mine now he runs .030 solid wire through has no problems. Both welders i used the knurled drive wheels as i only run flux core wire. Moving the welder is not a option sometimes when you need to go up.